Surge AI, an artificial intelligence training company, is facing a lawsuit accusing it of misclassifying contractors hired to enhance chat responses for AI software used by some of the world’s top tech firms. The proposed class action claims that “data annotators” employed by Surge AI to help ensure that advanced AI systems operated by Meta and OpenAI generate accurate, human-like text responses were intentionally classified as independent contractors, thereby denying them employee benefits. Filed Monday, the lawsuit, brought by California-based plaintiff Dominique DonJuan Cavalier II and represented by the public interest law firm Clarkson, alleges that he and other data annotators were required to undergo unpaid training and faced nearly impossible deadlines, which led to reductions in their pay. According to the complaint, San Francisco-based Surge AI, also known as Surge Labs, and its subsidiaries “have profited massively by deliberately avoiding paying wages and benefits to workers performing essential tasks that underpin the Defendants’ business. ” Surge AI did not reply to a request for comment. While AI data training companies have in recent years been criticized for mistreatment of workers overseas in places like Kenya, as the AI sector expands rapidly, similar grievances have increasingly emerged from workers in California and across the U. S. Comparable lawsuits have been filed against Scale AI, a larger AI training firm employing a wide contractor base to train AI technologies for clients including OpenAI, Google, and the U. S.

Department of Defense. Surge AI has reportedly raised about $25 million, per Crunchbase. Meanwhile, Scale AI is reportedly aiming for a valuation as high as $25 billion in a potential tender offer, according to Reuters. In December, plaintiff Steve McKinney, a Newbury Park resident hired by Scale AI’s subsidiary Outlier AI as a “tasker, ” sued the company, claiming he was promised $25 per hour but was paid only a fraction of that amount. The lawsuit also states that workers who challenged payment practices via the internal messaging platform Slack were abruptly removed from the app; this suit was also filed by law firm Clarkson, based in Malibu. In January, Scale AI contractors filed a second lawsuit alleging that they were forced to review graphic, disturbing “depraved images, ” which caused emotional distress, including post-traumatic stress disorder and related psychological harm.